


Not Exactly Shining Armor

by TimeLadyoftheSith



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Ending could be read as Nine/Rose if you squint, F/M, Jack Meets Jimmy, Jack the Hero, Not Really a Nine/Rose fic only labeled it just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-17 00:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10582266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeLadyoftheSith/pseuds/TimeLadyoftheSith
Summary: After losing sight of her in a club, Jack finds Rose in a confrontation with her ex. Not one to let his best friend be in danger, Jack steps in as her defender. He may not wearing shining armor, but that doesn't mean he can't throw down a gauntlet.





	1. Chapter 1

Jack was glad Rose had invited him out to her friend Michelle's birthday party. It wasn't because of all the lovely ladies and delicious men dancing around him. It wasn't even because he's gotten to dance with Rose again. It was because it felt so good to have a friend who believed in him. Sure, he and the Doctor could be chummy at times, but the unresolved sexual tension between his friends sometimes ended up with the Doctor being cross with him.

Rose had invited the Doctor as well, but then they had gotten into a fight over her flirting with some long haired blonde man on the planet they had saved earlier. He was jealous, but denying it. Rose had gotten the better of him, calling him an arrogant blind idiot. When she had drug Jack out the door, her purple heels clattering against the grating, the Doctor had ignored them from his place under the console. The Time Lord wouldn't abandon them, that much Jack knew. He was too besotted with Rose to ever do that.

Speaking of Rose, Jack had lost sight of her in the club. He knew she could take care of herself, but it was not like her in the least bit to stray out of his line of sight. He tossed back his drink, slipped the man who was rubbing this thigh his number, and jumped off the stool. He spotted Michelle and Shareen grinding together on the edge of the dancefloor. "Where's Rose?!" He half shouted, as Michelle looped an arm around his neck.

"Thought she was with you." The woman replied rubbing her thigh between his. "She probably popped into the loo."

"I don't think so." He chuckled kissing the woman sloppily before separating himself and began stalking the club. He pretended to be drunk and confused to check the women's bathroom. Then he checked the men's. No sight of his best friend's delectable purple and silver dress or her golden hair.

The fire exit that led into a back alley was cracked, and Jack pushed it further open.

Rose was literally screaming at a man who was clutching her arms. "Let me go, Jimmy Stone."

"Well you certainly developed some spunk." The man, Jimmy, laughed. "Bet I can still make you beg though."

"Fuck you!" Rose kicked Jimmy hard in the shin. The bastard punched Rose in the mouth, and Jack snapped. He rushed forward, tackling the man by the waist. They crashed into a stack of wooden crates.

Jimmy struggled under him, catching Jack in the kidney with a punch. Jack responses with a solid punch of his own to the man's face. He didn't stop with one either. He pummeled Jimmy until the man's nose and lips seeped blood and his eyes were swollen shut.

With a solid kick to the ribs, Jack crawled out of the pile of wood and over to Rose who was watching them, holding her hand over her own bleeding lips. "Is he dead?" She gasped, taking in the unconscious man and Jack's busted knuckles.

"No, but I'm sure his jaw is broken." Jack winced as he stretched out his aching fingers to touch Rose's face. He had at least three broken knuckles on each hand. That didn't matter. "You alright Rosie?"

"Little shook up." She replied flinching back as he wiped the blood off of her bottom lip. "Not the first time he's bloodied my mouth up." Something dark and so unlike the vibrant woman he knew passed behind her eyes.

If Jack knew one thing, she would never suffer like that again as long as he lived. "Well it will definitely be the last." He snorted. "Come on, let's get you home. The Doctor will patch that lip right up." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder in a friendly manner.

"Need to have him take care of those hands, too." Rose shook her head and looped her arm loosely around his waist. "Or they'll scar."

"Battle scars earn by defending Rose Tyler?" Jack gave a full belly laugh of pride. "I'll keep em if you don't mind." He dropped a playful kiss to the top of her head. As always, Rose elbowed him away a bit just as playfully.

She explained the story on the walk back to the TARDIS, and Jack was smugly satisfied that he had beaten the man to a pulp. The Doctor was not in the console room when they stepped in. Rose excused herself to her room to change, and Jack set off to find the brooding man in leather.

He found the Doctor buried in some massive book in the library. "Hey, Doc, Rose needs you. It's important."

The Doctor's icy eyes snapped up in irritation. He was obviously still ticked off about the argument earlier. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he saw Jack's hands. "What the hell happened to you?" He demanded. "Where's Rose?"

"In her room changing." Jack shrugged. "We ran into her exboyfriend. Well, Rose did and I intervened."

"What happened Jack?" The Doctor surged to his feet, slamming the book shut. "Is she alright?"

"Jimmy roughed her up a bit before I got to them. She's got a busted lip." Jack blocked the Doctor as he tried to shove past him. "Now don't go in there all Oncoming Storm, Doc. She's seen enough anger tonight. It's not my story to tell Doctor, but he used to abuse her."

"Where's the bastard now?" The Doctor seethed, his eyes dark and swirling.

"I beat the shit out of him and left him unconscious in an alley." Jack smirked. "Speaking of, I'll be in the infirmary if you need me." He let the Doctor storm past. "Remember! Be calm!" He yelled after him.

Jack wandered to the infirmary and began tending to his hands. He winced as the dermal regenerator knitted the underlying muscles and tendons together. He switched it off before it could completely close up the gashes in the skin. He told Rose he'd be proud to bear the scars, and he meant it.

He made his way down the hallway and saw Rose's door cracked open. Jack peeked in just enough to see her sobbing into the Doctor's jumper as he stroked her hair, blue salve glistening on her lip. The Doctor met his eyes and mouthed "Thank you."

Jack smiled back and pulled the door to with a click.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Additionally chapter specifically for MrsBertucci

Jack sipped the glass of water he had filled and tossed an anti hangover pill into his mouth. It had been nearly two hours since he had left Rose and the Doctor alone, but he was still too wired to sleep.

The sound of heavy boots on tile made him look towards the door. The Doctor was standing there, his jumper bloody, and his hands caked in mud. He ripped the wool shirt over his head and chunked it in the rubbish bin in the corner and began scrubbing his hands in the sink.

"What did you do now, Doc?" Jack asked raising an eyebrow.

"Went to check on the scumbag and make sure you didn't kill him." The Doctor shrugged drying off his hands. "Left an anonymous tip to police where he was."

Jack huffed into his glass and leaned against the counter. "How's our girl?"

The Doctor gave him a side glare. "She's not anybody's girl, Jack." He replied and filled his own glass with some juice. "But she's okay, I think. She fell asleep shortly after you peeked in."

"You should have stayed with her." Jack mused shaking his head. "You could have used that as an excuse to cuddle with her all night."

"She doesn't want to cuddle with me." The Doctor snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'm the reason she's hurt tonight in the first place." He was wearing that self loathing look he usually reserved for when he went off on a tangent about killing his people.

"How are you at fault, Doctor." Jack was legitimately confused. "You weren't even there."

"Exactly." The Doctor slammed his glass on the counter and it shattered. "If I had been, maybe.." his voice trailed off as he pulled a shard of glass from his hand.

"Wandered off?" Jack felt like he'd never stop shaking his head at idiot Time Lord. "Doctor, he cornered her outside the bathroom. Even you wouldn't have seen that." He snagged a towel from under the sink and began cleaning up the bloody juice and glass shards. He knew better than to offer to tend to the Doctor's hand. Jack knew he should take advantage of the shirtless Doctor to use for heavily innuendoed jokes later, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Maybe I could have." The Doctor sucked the bloody cut into his mouth, trying to staunch the bleeding.

"Doctor, between the two of us, Rose has managed to wander off more than once." Jack tossed the glass filled towel into the rubbish bin with the Doctor's jumper, and plunged his hand into the Doctor's pants to retrieve his sonic.

As usual, the Doctor squirmed away from his touch, but Jack's hand emerged with it's prize. He set it on the dermal regeneration setting, and pried the stiff cool had from his mouth. The sonic buzzed in the silent room as the Doctor's skin knitted back together. "I still should have gone. Not that you didn't do a fantastic job defending her Jack, because you did, thank you."

Two thank yous from the grumpy Doctor in one night, this was going better than it could have. "Then what is it Doc? I mean, why are you beating yourself up over this? Shit happens, not even you can stop it all." Jack flipped the sonic in the air and slid it back into the Doctor's pocket.

"I've never seen Rose so distraught before. I've seen her stare down Reapers, show mercy to a Dalek, face down missiles that could kill her." He squeezed his glacial eyes shut and rubbed his face. "She never backed down, but tonight she couldn't even tell me. She just cried until she fell asleep. She told you, why didn't she tell me?" The Doctor swallowed heavily. "What sorta person am I, that she can't tell me why she was so upset?"

"It could be that you called her a stupid hormonal ape with no sense of self preservation yesterday." Jack shrugged. "You and I know you were just jealous, but she doesn't."

"She knows I didn't mean that." The sullen man turned his eyes uncertainly to Jack. This wasn't a look he had ever seen on the Time Lord, but it made him look much younger than his nine-hundred years. "Doesn't she?"

"Doctor, our Rose is head over heels in love with you." Jack grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a gentle shake. "Maybe you think you don't deserve that, hell even I wouldn't deserve her if she felt that way about me, but she does know you never mean it." He planted a firm kiss on the Doctor's lips and pulled back with a smack. "What you need to do is go tell her."

The Doctor shrugged his hands off his shoulders and wiped his mouth. "She's asleep." He reiterated softly.

"Trust me Doctor, she wouldn't mind if you climbed shirtless into her bed and woke her up." Jack gave him a roguish grin, and figured he'd add on just a tint lie. "She told me that last week." He spun the dazed Time Lord around and pushed him out the door. "Let's go."

"Jack stop!" The Doctor fussed but he continued on their march down the hall. Rose's oak door came into view. Jack turned the handle, and shoved the Doctor inside. The Time Lord stumbled with the movement into Rose's desk.

"Doctor? Jack? what's going on?" Rose's voice was thick with sleep and scratchy with worn out tears. She lifted her head up confused to blink at them.

"The Doctor thought you could use a cuddle." Jack chuckled, backing out slowly.

"Harkness." The Doctor hissed trying to back out too.

"Come here Doctor." Rose murmured, lifting up her blanket and moving to the other pillow. The Doctor's shoulders slumped in defeat as his eyes sparkled with hesitant hope. That was a look Jack could handle on his face.

He watched through the crack just long enough to see the Doctor shed his boots and climb under Rose's yellow comfort and the little blonde companion snuggle into his arms with a content smile. Jack pulled the door shut and smiled at the wood. He may be an omnisexual manwhore, but even he knew true love when he saw it.

 

 


End file.
